North Korea has about 25 million people. It is a very poor country and it cannot feed all these people. In other words, they have a huge surplus of human beings. Suppose there is a war, even a nuclear war. Suppose North Korea loses 5 or 10 million. Kim looks at that as fewer mouths to feed. A win for him and he can blame it on the Americans.
Doesn't that calculation require that li'l Kim is still alive and permitted to remain in power once hostilities cease? Why would he assume we would stop fighting before he's dead?
He isn’t going to lose 10 million people without being defeated and killed himself. His plan is to get to a point where we no longer dare attack him.
And then receive boatloads of aid to rebuild his infrastructure
“Kim looks at that as fewer mouths to feed. A win for him and he can blame it on the Americans.”
If, God forbid, this escalates into a nuclear confrontation, Kim is done and will be killed - either during the explosions or after. No possible way he survives.